Help me prep for shabbos!

EstyEF

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 3:51 am

Expert homemakers I need your help!

I have two under two and a full time teaching job. When I come home I am exhausted and just want to spend time with my kids. Their totty is busy learning after work and I don't want to take time away from his learning to help with kids. He is a very loving totty and spends time with the kids whenever he can but I absolutely want to prioritize his learning. We need my income so cutting back is not an option.

I really want to have a nice shabbos. Clean house, prepared meals, etc.
BH" I have cleaning help so I rely on our cleaner a lot. Can anyone give me tips for prepping throughout the week so my shabbos is... more shabbosdik?
I would say I can spare anywhere from about 15- 30 min a day- honestly, depending on my toddler's mood. She's going through a phase where she really needs mommy to hold her... a lot.

Added note: I grew up completely secular and never cooked so... preparing shabbos meals is challenging.

bargainlover

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 4:23 am

EstyEF wrote:

Do you have freezer space to make in advance and freeze?

daredevil

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 4:40 am

Involve your toddler instead of her wanting to be held. Crockpot or one pan meal

yachnabobba

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 4:46 am

Ok: here’s my crisis mode shabbos prep
Challah: bakery there is a time and a place for baking at home this isn’t it
Fish: toss a loaf into a disposable pan sprinkle the top liberally with old bay seasoning or similar . Slide into oven
Soup: Turkey necks, a bag of baby carrots and an onion make a just fine soup
Yellow mandlen
Main course: well cleaned chicken bottom quarters with paprika and onion powder
Rice in a disposable pan in oven then blech
Open a bag of broccoli and pop on blech as you light candles.
That’s not more than twenty minutes

teachkids

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 5:14 am

Are you me?
I have some time in the morning, but you could do nights instead if that works for you.

Ahead (Sunday as an activity with the kids?) Bake and freeze challah and desserts and kugels. A month or two worth of whatever it that days mission is.
Wednesday morning: clean up my kitchen fully.
Thursday morning: make shabbos lunch main. (My 4 year old can fill borekas or egg boreka or deli roll)

Thursday night: make gefilte fish (I bake it - 3 min prep)

Friday morning:
Chicken soup in instant pot (my kids are kept busy dropping the baby carrots in)
Prepare chicken and stick in the oven frozen, set oven to turn on at 1.
Chulent (kids can help throw in handfuls of soaked beans.

Friday afternoon: quickly roast potatoes/ frozen veggies.

The Happy Wife

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 5:27 am

What time are your kids going to sleep? They're both young, so I would think you have a few hours after they are asleep to get stuff done. I would focus on doing stuff after they are sleeping, so you don't have to feel like you're being pulled in two directions at once.

lkwdlady

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 5:42 am

I would bake challah on Tuesday (if you bake)
Wednesday- fish, soup and kugel - you don’t have to freeze- it stays fresh
Thursday- chicken Chulent and whatever else you need …

They key is to start early and do a little every day

scintilla

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 5:43 am

EstyEF wrote:

In your stage of life, I prepared very simple but very yummy shabbos meals - not that I'm too far out of your stage but I have a little more time now and it's a world of a difference. So just know that it will come!! Menu would look something like:
Friday night - bought challah, gefilte fish baked in a disposable loaf pan, 2 store bought dips, one salad made with a bag of checked greens, whatever vegetable I had in the fridge and a dressing I made every few weeks and stored in the fridge (make 2 so you can alternate). Soup, made a big batch every few weeks and stored in the freezer with only carrots added fresh each week; if you really love kneidelach you can make a giant batch and they freeze beautifully as well. Chicken bottoms again in a disposable pan with either rice or sliced potatoes/sweet potatoes underneath. Dessert - ice cream or a 9x13 cake from dinner done, super easy.

Shabbos day - same first course, second course cholent and if time a quick kugel like broccoli or zucchini (potato kugel takes so long to make, I never had time). Same dessert.

Now for how I planned my week around it. Pretty much everything happened when the kids were sleeping except for Friday itself when they either were on a stool in the kitchen with me or they got to watch a video for 20 minutes.

Sunday - clean up from shabbos
Monday - nothing
Tuesday - make menu and from there make shopping list
Wednesday morning (or Tuesday night) make grocery order so it will arrive by Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday night make fish and dressing, clean up kitchen ready for Thursday, you could start cleaning up your house if your kids won't undo everything.
Thursday - kugel, cake, soak beans for cholent, prep everything for cholent in crock pot insert, prep chicken pan, peel and slice soup carrots.
Friday morning - put up cholent, add beans. Afternoon: bake chicken, defrost soup, add carrots, clean up house, put on shabbos tablecloth, once Shabbos comes in kids can help set table by bringing you things from the kitchen.

Hope this helps!!

zaq

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 7:43 am

As everyone said:
1. Simplify everything. Meals, clothing, housecleaning. Forget aesthetics; do just what is necessary to prevent disease and supply basic life requirements. Kugel is lovely, but seasoned mashed potatoes, baked winter squash or rice pilaf take less time to prepare and are healthier.

2. Teach your children to do their part as early as possible. While having your toddler put her tissue into the trash or his pajamas in the hamper won't make a huge dent now, this teaching is an investment in the future. They will grow up knowing that cleaning up is a normal part of life, rather than being shocked to the core when at thirteen they're expected to make their own beds and vacuum their room.

3. Don't EXPECT your dh to do anything because chances are he won't think or know to do them, but absolutely do ASK him to do simple things that won't take much of his time or take him way out of the way. There's no reason why he can't take out the trash on his way to seder, put his own clothes away or check vegetables for you if you're not buying prechecked. Every little bit helps. In any case, you want him to set a good example for your children. They need to see their father contributing to the job of keeping the house clean and the family fed.

I applaud your desire not to interfere with your dh learning, but please remember that the Torah expects him to support you financially, and in your ketubah he promises to do so. Since you have relieved him of that responsibility, the least he can do is take on a housekeeping chore or two, especially to prepare for Shabbat. Halacha anyway requires every individual to do some form of work to prepare for Shabbat.

4. Have less stuff, especially clothing and children's toys. I have yet to see a child who has too few toys. IME, children's toys and baby gear in general are THE biggest source of clutter and mess in a household with children. Less stuff means less clutter, less to clean, and fewer tripping hazards. You may think that having more clothes means less frequent laundry, but it also means bigger laundry loads and more time spent putting stuff away. Better to have five outfits you wash and put away once a week than twenty that you wash and put away once a month, and that, in the meantime, overflow your hampers and drawers and take hours to fold and put away.

cbg

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 9:06 am

yachnabobba wrote:

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I love this and will copy

My usual menu -
Friday Night
Challah
Salmon
Lettuce salad
Sliced beets (vacuum pack) with Tehina drzzled
Heart of palm can-can salad- heart of palm, black olive, corn and a tiny bit of Mayo
Choose 2 dips Matbucha, Chumus, Tapanad, babganush (jar of mashed eggplant mixed with Tehina)
Soup, whoever wants
Roast or chicken (both if I have lots of guests)
A veg kugel
Roasted broccoli if I have guests
Rice

Day Same as night salads and fish
plus potato kugel or noodle kugel (both if I have guests)
Cholent
I may take out leftover from the night before and heat on the blech or serve room temp if it’s saucy stuff

Dessert - store bought something , fruit, nosh
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Wednesday - ALL SHOPPING

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Thursday Night

For challah I buy Rhodes frozen rolls - on Thursday night I place the frozen rolls in a round or oval pan and spray a piece of Saran Wrap and defrost in the fridge overnight. Literally takes 1 minute.
On Friday I take them out. - preheat the oven and bake. I should leave them out to rise but who has time. They rise when they bake just as well. I don’t even egg them or sprinkle toppings but you could if you want

For fish I buy sliced salmon. I usually cut them in 1/2 and sprinkle whatever seasonings I pull out- salt, onion, garlic, paprika and a little drizzle of olive oil.
In a 425 oven about 18 minutes. Check how done you like it

Salad- classic salad bag like dole. I slice some sliced red onion because I like it., Crutons or anything similar, prep any veggies you like but don’t mix until last minute.
Dressing - Mayo, tons of garlic powder, salt, and a bit of parve milk to thin to the proper consistency, sometimes I add dry dill. this is what we like, but use a bottle dressing if you like- dress the salad last minute.

For soup I cube peeled carrots, peeled celery, potatoes, add anything else you like - and I cook in broth and water (since the broth is concentrated) for about 40 minutes until everything is soft but not too mush - I don’t add too many veggies 1 biggish carrot, 1 potato, 2 celery stalks, if I have something interesting to add from the fridge I will. After it’s cooked I add leftover shredded chicken if I have any left over from week day dinner, but it’s not necessary. If you like you can add a little consume powder, but it’s not necessary. Taste and season to taste.

Prep Tehina

Peel and quarter 3 potatoes and 2 onions for cholent - put in water in the fridge

Defrost chicken tray if I’m making
Defrost any kugels
Double check the menu to make sure defrost Any thing

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From the freezer. This I bulk cook on Sunday 1 or 2 a month I try to make 6 -8 weeks worth

Pre-sliced roast - 3 -4?chuck roast and 3 -4 2nd cut brisket -
season all of them with salt pepper onion powder garlic powder-.
On the Chuck roast I put some pesto (defrosted herb cubes, oil, chopped garlic, salt) then I add some left over chicken broth from Friday night- or I defrost home bone broth broth

On the brisket - mix jelly cranberry sauce with onion soup mix, and smear on top

Seal all of them tightly bake at 325 for 3 -3.5 hrs.
Let rest in the fridge for at least 8 hrs or over night . I would do this early Sunday morning and then slice at night

I have a meat slicer which makes it super easy to slice all of them. Slice however thick you like.

Potato kugel
Spinach kugel
Cauliflower/Carrot kugel
Sweet each noodle kugel
Salt and pepper noodle kugel
I make these in 5x7 tray the small 2.5 lb ones.

Prepped chicken legs with sauce frozen raw
I make 8 trays- 4 different types, store bought sauce- I use 1/2 a bottle for each tray- duck sauce, bone sucking sauce, Italian dressing, teriyaki - just season the legs, pour, cover and freeze. The secret for it tasting good is on Friday baking it low and slow - 300 for 3 hrs.

Chumus - enough for 8 weeks
Matbucha - enough for 8 weeks
Tapanad - enough for 8 weeks

Huge stock pot of Bone broth - lots of chicken bones and feet. 1 or 2 onions cut in quarts, celery washed well cut in 3rds no need to peel, carrots washed well cut in 3rds no need to perl a big splash of vinegar and salt . I let it cook for about 20 hrs.
I put it up Motze Shabbat. Sunday early evening I let it cool for about 1hr. Strain through a flour bag cloth and put into containers. I make about 10-12 big round containers the tall ones.
The soup is concentrated when I use I add 1/2 of the container with water, scraping down the sides.

Prep bags of seasoned cholent meat frozen raw.
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Friday
Bake challah
Prep beet salad
Prep heart of palm salad
Prep baba ganush if using
Roast broccoli - IF I m making
Bake rice in the oven
Put cholent in the crockpot I use a liner
Bones, cholent meat (that was seasoned in the freezer) potatoes, onion, 1/2 bag barley, 1/4 bag beans, water, I season with small packets of complete seasoning, ,frozen kugel 3x foiled on top.
Plug in right before Shabbat

I know my post is very long
I hope it’s helpful

It’s still a lot of work

I have cleaning help 8 hrs Friday and 5 hrs Monday, though. She cleans everything from my Sunday bulk cooking.
HUGE HELP.
Paying for this is DHs way of helping out.
If not he would need to do the cleaning.

DH helps me a bit in the kitchen on Sunday of bulk

zaq

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 10:36 am

yachnabobba wrote:

Challah: bakery there is a time and a place for baking at home this isn’t it

Love this!

lkwdlady

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 10:48 am

yachnabobba wrote:

Challah: bakery there is a time and a place for baking at home this isn’t it

Love this!

Years ago my friend told me, “there’s a reason why the bakeries sell challah… people really buy them!”

Grateful2bhere

Sun, Jan 14 2024, 11:27 am

Bake or cook in bulk & freeze!
A backup freezer for the Jewish homemaker is not a luxury item
- chicken on bone dishes
- many dips esp with oil freeze well
- desserts, so many freeze well
- kugel can freeze raw or cooked (between carpools has articles on, or search here)
- soups